


you go down smooth

by maybesandsomedays



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: M/M, beer brewer patrick au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-05-31
Packaged: 2020-03-30 20:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybesandsomedays/pseuds/maybesandsomedays
Summary: “Well, David, I think we’ve got ourselves an exclusivity deal.”David does his closed-lip half-smile that means he’s thrilled as he reaches to meet Patrick’s hand. “I must’ve really outbid all your other prospective vendors,” he jokes.“Ohh, I haven’t met with any other vendors.”--Patrick has his own home-brewed beer, and he's looking for a vendor. Luckily, David owns Rose Apothecary.





	you go down smooth

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by noah reid and his beer-loving tendecies. dedicated to and thanks to the entire schitt's creek discord <3 especially em who picked the title, emma who replied to my initial post, emma who formatted the texts, and kat who helped me with a line i was stuck on.
> 
> somehow this turned out just as much david & stevie friendship as it did david/patrick, because stevie had a mind of her own and kept deciding she was in scenes. also because i love her. also, i have no idea how in this david possibly managed to start the store without patrick, but let’s pretend he did.
> 
> any inaccuracies about beer are mine lmao i don't drink beer so sorry if anything's wrong! i tried to research
> 
> title is from "you go down smooth" by lake street dive

“Hey,” David says, nearly sashaying into the motel lobby.

Stevie looks up from her book and eyes him. “Okay, so what do you want?”

David feigns innocence. “I only want to say hi. To you.”

“Hi,” Stevie says back. “There. Now that’s done. Are you leaving my office now?” She raises her eyebrows, challenging him, and David doesn’t move.

Stevie sticks in a bookmark and snaps her book shut. “Yeah, no, you’re only this cheery if you want something.”

David looks at her a beat longer, and she stares back with a blank expression, and then his face and body contort as he cracks. “Okay, _fine_. I was hoping—”

“Probably not, no.”

“—that you might want to go to Elmdale with me today?” His voice rises at the end in a hopeful question and he gives her a bared-tooth smile that comes out more like a grimace.

“As thrilling as a trip to Elmdale sounds, I think I’ll pass.” Before David can say anything in response, Stevie softens. “Why are you going to Elmdale anyway?”

“I’m meeting a potential new supplier and I was hoping for some company.”

“And you wanted me there?” Her face scrunches up in confusion. “Meeting people?”

“…Yes.” The word comes out sounding strangled.

“I don’t think that would be a good business decision,” Stevie snarks, deadpan. “What about your sister? She’s gotta be better at first impressions than I am. Pretty much anyone is, really.”

“Um, she is with Ted today. Or maybe Twyla? I don’t know, I’m pretty sure the name started with a T.”

“I admire your listening skills. Truly inspiring.”

“Are you sure you won’t come?”

She nods. “I’m sure.”

“Fine. Have fun here,” David says, turning to leave.

Stevie picks her book back up. “Have fun in _Elmdale_.”

* * *

“You must be David Rose,” the vendor says cheerily, holding his hand out. “Patrick Brewer.”

“Mm, are you telling me what you do, or is that just a fun coincidence?”

Patrick chuckles while tilting his head down but with his eyes looking up. “Uh, both? Fun coincidence, but maybe I was destined to have beer as my favorite alcoholic beverage.”

“Sorry, did you say you _favorite?_ Out of all the alcohols? Like if you were in a bar, and you could get any drink on the menu, you’d get a beer?”

Patrick smirks. “I take it you’re not a huge fan?”

David too late remembers he should be nice to his new vendor, and squeezes his eyes together. “It’s not that I _don’t_ like it, it’s just—” He waves his hands around, searching for words. “Not my first drink of choice.”

Patrick fixes him with a long look, like he’s regarding him. “Maybe I can change that.”

A shiver goes down David’s spine.

“So would you like to see the operation?” Patrick asks abruptly, and David is so startled he can only nod. Patrick turns and leads him into the building.

“This is the studio I have for brewing,” Patrick explains, unlocking a door and flicking on the lights. “It’s technically a home brew, but I rent a room from someone so I have this so I don’t take over the kitchen.”

David looks around appreciatively at Patrick’s equipment, even though he has no idea what he’s looking at. Bottles and pots are stored neatly on most surfaces.

“I’ve played around with most types of beer,” Patrick continues, “ale, lager, stout, malt, even pilsners.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

“I like ales, but stouts are my favorite to make. They have roasted barley.”

David nods thoughtfully, walking around and inspecting the premises and craning his neck around to look at Patrick. “You’ve certainly got a nice operation here. Do you have any ready?”

Patrick opens a fridge and pulls out a bottle—David notices _Home Run Brewery_ on the label—then pours it in a glass. “This one is honey beer, I made it yesterday.”

David takes a sip, surprised by the sweetness of the honey and caramel in the beer. He considers.

“If the rest are anything like this, I think they’d do well in the store.”

Patrick’s face brightens and David’s heart does something funny that he’s not sure about. He should get Ted to check that again.

“Well, I think we could start with a case and see how it sells,” David starts. “But I should warn you, I prefer exclusivity deals.”

“Oh!” Patrick does not sound the least bit surprised. He pulls one hand out of its place in his pocket and holds it out for David to shake. “Well, David, I think we’ve got ourselves an exclusivity deal.”

David does his closed-lip half-smile that means he’s thrilled as he reaches to meet Patrick’s hand. “I must’ve really outbid all your other prospective vendors,” he jokes.

“Ohh, I haven’t met with any other vendors.”

It isn’t flippant. It isn’t said as though that was something he had forgotten to do, and he’s glad David gave him the advice. Patrick says it with such finality and determination that it makes David stop in his tracks, forgetting the handshake and staring, shocked, into Patrick’s eyes. The look he sees reflected back at him confirms the tone of voice. Patrick has made his decision, and he’s not going back.

David blinks to shake himself out of it, and then realizes he’s holding hands with Patrick and has been for several seconds after they stopped shaking. He pulls his back, and for a brief second he swears he sees Patrick look disappointed, but it vanishes just as quickly.

“That’s, um…that’s very kind of you,” David finally manages to have his brain come up with. “Thank you for…having so much faith in…my store.”

“Yeah, no need to meet anyone else. There’s no one I’d rather have selling my beer, David.”

Patrick’s words and his gaze fixed on David is enough to make David’s stomach swoop.

It’s the thrill of securing an exclusivity deal with a new vendor, of course.

* * *

**< From> David Rose**

**< To Stevie Budd>**

you’re coming over tonight

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To David Rose>**

what makes you say that

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

the new vendor is a brewer

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

and maybe he gave me some beers to sample

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

wtf why didn’t you tell me there would be free booze

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

i would’ve come with you for THAT

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

just come in the lobby when you get here, room 3 is open so we can use that

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

you know it’s nice to see you so excited to see me. heartwarming, really

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

i’m only in this for the free booze

* * *

“David,” Stevie says seriously, and he tilts his head to look at her, panic taking hold of his heart for a second because Stevie is never serious, but she holds up her bottle and nods at it. “This…is really fucking good beer.”

Feeling the grip on his chest easing up, David takes another sip of his own beer. “Yeah, you know, this isn’t bad. I think it’ll sell well.”

“I think you need to marry him so I can get this beer free for life. As your best friend, I have rights.”

David pointedly avoids Stevie’s statement. “I’m not really a beer guy.”

“No, you just want to do the beer guy,” Stevie says, and starts cackling wildly at her own joke.

“I see we’ve entered the tipsy stage of the night,” David says, amused and teasing, after watching her for a few seconds with the corner of his mouth turned into a fond smile.

She instantly drops her face into a scowl, but it’s without any hint of any real malice and there’s still laughter behind it. “Shut up. Pass me another, I want to be drunker than this.”

—

“He’s definitely straight,” David declares decisively out of nowhere, nodding, stopping the nod because it makes his head spin. Stevie reaches out and runs her fingers through his hair and David lets her because they’re drunk and they get platonically cuddly when inebriated.

“Want me to try to seduce him for you to find out?” Stevie’s words are slurred by this point. Somehow she knows exactly who David is talking about even though there were no real indicators. She always understands exactly what David is talking about. It’s one of his favorite things about her, he thinks.

“Did you like, forget you’re gay, or…?” It’s the one flaw he can find in her plan right now. He sets his beer down on the floor next to him and starts braiding her hair.

“Yeah, exactly. So if I do it, there’s no risk,” Stevie explains enthusiastically, animated both in her tone and in her hands flying around, and somehow they’ve both had more than enough alcohol that the drunk logic sounds like a great idea. “And if he is straight and breaks your heart, I get to break his heart for you!” She sighs wistfully. “Breaking guys’ hearts was the only good part of thinking I was straight. How did I ever think I was straight?”

“I don’t know, you dress like literally every lesbian stereotype.”

“Thank you.” She stops to think. “Pi…Phil…Patricia…Rick…y…beer guy—”

“Patrick,” David supplies. There’s no way he’s ever forgetting that name, he thinks, as Patrick’s face flashes through his mind.

“PATRICK!” Stevie yells, her upper body jolting forward, making David jump and cry out in alarm. She’s too drunk to let it deter her. “ _Patrick_. That’s his name. Patrick isn’t straight. I’m _telling_ you, David.”

David’s mouth plays up in a smile as he considers her words. “How would you know? You haven’t even met him.”

She nods sagely and settles back down against the side of the bed, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “I know things.”

“No guy who likes men also likes beer this much,” David counters half-heartedly.

This makes Stevie forget the conversation entirely, staring at her beer bottle in wonder.

* * *

“Patrick,” David says the moment he sees him, his name slipping from his lips almost involuntarily. “What—what brings you here?”

Patrick stands awkwardly for a split second before he recovers. “I uh, I came to see how my beers are doing. In your store.”

David bites his lip so far into his mouth he’s practically swallowing it to keep from smiling. “Mm. And you needed to come all the way here for that?”

“Well, you know, I was…in the area.” David doesn’t know how Patrick manages to make the words “in the area” sound like a flirty innuendo. He speaks to avoid that train of thought.

“Well, to answer your question, they are doing very well. We’ve sold five in the last hour. Three were my friend Stevie, she really likes it.”

Patrick grins. “Tell her I said thanks.” He pauses, and gives David a look, still grinning. “Now…is this the same Stevie who was with you when you left me those voicemails?”

“What voicema—oh, my _God_.” The colour drains from David’s face and Patrick looks like his smile might split his face in half.

“Yeah, you left quite a few of them. You sounded like you two were having a good time,” Patrick teases.

David scrunches up his face. “Did I? What did I…what did I say, to you, exactly?”

“Oh, it’s more about what Stevie said,” Patrick says casually, briefly looking up at the ceiling as though it’s interesting. “Something about how it’s her new favorite beer, and she wanted more of it, and so—what was it she said—she couldn’t wait for us to be boyfriends?” The words are not hostile or angry like David would expect. Patrick sounds like he’s teasing, like the flirting is continuing.

David squirms, but not uncomfortably. “Well, you can’t put much stock in what Stevie said. She was very drunk.”

“Huh. She also said you liked how soft my hands are.”

“You can’t trust her sober, either, just so you know.”

“I see. So everything she said was made up.” It comes out somewhere halfway between a phrase and a question, and it’s clear Patrick sees right through what David is telling him.

“I was also very drunk.”

“Mm. On the beer I gave you.”

“That would be correct.”

Patrick’s lips play up into a smile, and for one wild second, David thinks Patrick might kiss him. For that same wild second, he thinks he wouldn’t mind that happening at all.

* * *

“So I heard Patrick stopped by the store today,” Stevie says, like she’s trying to be casual but clearly has been dying to bring this up.

“Wait, who’s Patrick?” Alexis asks, overhearing. “David! Did you meet someone and not tell me about it?” She smacks his arm with a limp wrist as she says his name. David’s hand flies to the spot she hit and he yells “Ow!” more out of surprise than pain.

“No, I did not, Patrick is just a vendor, and no reason for causing me injuries!”

“Patrick is the beer guy,” Stevie supplies, grinning.

Alexis gasps. “The beer guy! Oh, you like the beer guy! Love that for you, David!”

“Hey Alexis, go to the beach and make friends with a jellyfish—”

“Okay, but what was he doing there, though?” she interrupts.

“Uh, buying something? It’s a store,” David snipes. “And, if you must know, he wanted to see how his beers were selling.”

“He came all the way from Elmdale for that?”

He glares at her. “He said he was ‘in the area.’ ”

Stevie’s brow furrows. “No one is ‘in the area’ of Schitt’s Creek.” She and Alexis share a look, and they both grin at the same time.

“Alright, your combined expressions are really freaking me out.”

“Stop avoiding the subject, David!” Alexis tells him.

“Think about it,” Stevie says, laying it out. “He drove all the way from _Elmdale_ into _Schitt’s Creek_ just to ‘see how his beers are selling’? Sounds to me like something that could’ve been asked in a phone call. Or a text, even.”

“Speaking of phone calls, you and I might need to talk about what we did while we were drunk,” David throws in, scrunching his face like he’s in pain.

“Yeah, there’s no way he’s that interested in the store,” Alexis interjects as if David hadn’t spoken.

“He wanted to see you. He’s into you,” Stevie finishes.

“Okay, did you two have a script, or something? Anyway, he brews beer and wears mid-range denim. He’s straight. He’s not into me.”

* * *

Patrick carefully pushes the box through the door, and stops when he sees the swarm of people. “Whoa,” he breathes, and his heart sinks a little bit. All the other times he’s come by, there wasn’t many people, leaving him to flirt with David. Today he might not get the chance to talk to him at all.

“Patrick!” David calls out, noticing him, and Patrick doesn’t miss how excited and relieved David sounds to see him, though he hopes he’s not reading too much into that. “If you could bring the box into the back, please, you know where it goes.”

On his way, Patrick takes his usual glance at where his beers are on display, and notes that there’s only a few left. David’s clearly been busy. He sets the box down and comes up behind David at the register.

“Hey, you know, if you want, I could help restock for you,” he offers.

David turns his head away from the customer and to Patrick and his whole body seems to sigh in relief. “You—you don’t mind?”

“Nah, I offered.”

“Then that would be wonderful, thank you so much Patrick.” David’s grateful eyes linger on his for a brief moment, and Patrick feels his stomach swooshing. David turns back to the people in line and Patrick disappears into the back for him. He’s been in here enough times that he knows where everything is, not just his beers.

“It was very nice of you to help,” David says, quietly, after the people are out and the doors are locked.

“Yeah, no problem. Anytime,” Patrick responds easily. He’d do anything for David, he knows that already.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to.”

David’s lip twitches and he makes a face like he’s pushing his tongue against his clamped teeth.

* * *

Patrick starts finding ways to help out at the store a lot more after that.

His excuses for why he’s there are getting worse, he knows that.

It doesn’t stop him from planning to tell David that today, he’s there for body milk, because each time he leaves the store he carefully looks around for the next thing he can buy that he doesn’t need.

The first thing he sees, though, is David staring down at documents at the front counter, looking pissed off and confused.

“Need any help there, David?”

David looks up, and tension melts from his face. “I, uh—I’m just working on these forms? And I don’t _get this_.”

“I can take a look,” Patrick says. “You know, I was a business major in college.”

David all too eagerly slides the papers towards him.

“Maybe I should just hire you at this point,” he jokes. “You’ve done so much work for me already.”

Patrick shrugs, trying to look nonchalant even though his heart has started beating out of his chest at the idea of having an a actual reason to see David each and every day. “I wouldn’t be opposed,” he gets out.

“I couldn’t ask you to come from Elmdale every day,” David weakly protests.

Patrick tilts his head to the side in confusion. “I don’t live in Elmdale,” he says. “That’s just where the studio is. I live here in town. So it’s no problem.”

So much for Stevie and Alexis’s theory of Patrick coming so far just to see him, David thinks; he was definitely right, Patrick can’t have a crush on him.

He likes being around Patrick, though, and Patrick is great around the store, so David actually smiles. “Okay,” he exhales. “I, um, I’m just not sure if I have the money?”

“I’ll get the money for you,” Patrick says quickly before he can stop himself. He can’t have this opportunity taken away now if David is serious.

David looks taken aback, and Patrick worries he’s overstepped, but the smile grows. “Alright,” he agrees. “Sounds like a plan.”

* * *

“So now that we’re here, do I get to know _why_ we’re here?”

Patrick stares out at the city downtown of Elm Ridge that David has brought him to, all brick buildings and cobbled streets.

David steps out of the car and Patrick follows his lead, and then David turns to him. “You said your favorite alcoholic beverage, out of _all the alcohols in the world_ , is beer.”

“That is correct. What does that have to do with this?”

“And that is a _crime_ , so today, we are at a wine tasting,” David announces.

“I’m a fan of the reds.”

The look David gives him makes him think he might be saying something he doesn’t realize, but the look David gives him also makes him think he’s glad he said it.

Inside, David watches Patrick sip at each wine carefully, as though he’s trying to find meaning in them.

“It’s—um, notes of oak?” he tries about a pinot noir.

“There’s no oak in this one,” David corrects, smiling into his glass to hide it.

“Okay, yeah, I don’t know what I’m talking about,” Patrick admits. “I like the wine, though.”

“You don’t have to know,” David says, a wash of affection running through him at Patrick, which he will think about later. “We can just taste.”

“Now it’s my turn,” Patrick announces when they leave, holding out his hand for the keys. Sips of wine weren’t enough to be drunk, and he knows he can drive. A surge goes through David’s body at Patrick’s take-charge tone, and he hands them over without a second thought and watches gleefully as Patrick slides into the driver’s seat.

“I’m guessing I don’t get to know where we’re going either?” David asks after the car starts moving.

“Oh, no way.”

David nods and turns his head away, biting his lower lip as he considers. His head whips back to Patrick. “Okay, it’s just, um, I’m not particularly…fond of surprises, though.”

“Oh, come on, David. Surprises are fun!” Patrick takes his eyes off the road for one second to turn and grin at David. “Trust me.”

* * *

When David recognizes Patrick pulling into Home Run Brewery, his brow furrows. “Why here?”

Patrick bows his head bashfully after he parks, looking up at David through his lashes as his head is tilted down. “I thought we could do a private tour.”

“Oh?” David shimmies.

“And maybe I’ve got another surprise for you inside,” Patrick admits.

“Mmm, okay you’ve convinced me. Let’s do this.”

Patrick unlocks the brewery door and holds it open for David to go ahead, flicking on all the lights. Then Patrick takes David’s hand and gently tugs it, pulling him towards him. “Come on, your surprise is this way,” he teases.

“Uh, if you’ve got a murderer in here, I’m backing out now,” David says, but goes where Patrick leads.

“Well, there is, but I can tell Earl to go home and murder someone else now that you guessed his plans.”

David stops and glares at him, although he’s not actually mad. “That’s not funny. You think you’re funny.”

With a smirk, Patrick steps closer to him, his hands on David’s shoulders, and he looks him dead in the eye, all joking gone. “David. There’s no murderer. You’re safe with me.”

A soft tingle spreads throughout David, making him feel warm and fuzzy and suddenly Patrick’s sincerity is overwhelming, it’s too much, the wonderful tingle is turning into electricity crawling under his skin—

“Besides, I can fight Earl off, anyway,” Patrick says cheerfully, and David’s mind comes to a screeching halt but Patrick’s jokes, putting them back into familiar teasing territory, strangely calms his nerves. “Anyway, this is what I wanted to show you.” David realizes they were walking again, and that they’d stopped in front of a barrel. He fills part of a stein for David and holds it out nervously. “Cherry beer.”

David stares at it for a moment, and Patrick starts rambling. “Since, you know, you said you really like cherries, and I know you don’t really like beer, but I thought you might like this, and…”

David plays with a smile, his tongue skirting across the backs of his teeth. He clears his throat. “I, um, I do like cherries.” He takes the glass. “And just to be clear, I do. I do like beer, though.”

“Come on, David, I’ve seen you drink beer. I’ve seen the faces you make.”

David grimaces. He hadn’t thought he was making those faces visually.

“Yeah, that’s one of them,” Patrick says fondly.

“Okay, yes, I don’t really drink beer, but yours really is very good, you know, for beer,” David tries to backtrack.

Patrick smiles and all of David’s anxiety vanishes for a moment. “It’s alright, David, you don’t have to like beer. It, uh, it means a lot to me that you carry it when you don’t really like it. And that you drank so much of it.” He smirks again, and David grimaces again. “But I want you to like it, so I made this cherry one just for you. It’s mostly cherry. It hardly tastes like beer at all.”

Patrick’s face is so earnest that David finally brings the glass up and takes an experimental sip, thinking that at least there’s a proper glass this time instead of a tube or bottles in Stevie’s apartment, and finds that Patrick is right. The beer flavor is masked by the cherry, making something that he doesn’t mind at all.

“This isn’t bad,” David says, surprised. Patrick’s face drops in relief.

“Really?! That’s so good ’cause I wasn’t sure if it had enough cherry.”

“No, no, the cherry’s good.” David takes another sip. “Actually, yeah, I think we’ll be needing more of these.”

* * *

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

ive got a joint want in

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

im with patrick

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

you finally went on a date with him

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

not a date, it’s friends hanging out

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

i assume you’re familiar with the concept? i’d say it’s what we do but

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

uh-huh. so what are you doing on this ‘not date’

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

also there are many reasons you and i are nothing like you and patrick. namely, he has a crush on you and i do not

 

**< From> David Rose**

**< To> Stevie Budd**

if you must know, i took him to a wine tasting and now he brought me to his brewery

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

david

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

have you ever actually been on a date before

 

**< From> Stevie Budd**

**< To> David Rose**

because that is a date

* * *

It’s four beers in, and who knows how many glasses of wine in because it’s hard to count when they were only tasted, when David finally feels courageous enough.

Stevie was right—he’d brought Patrick on a date. And Patrick had accepted it.

And even on a date, he’s been searching for a confirmation that Patrick is into David’s particular type of cherry red wine. He notices Patrick glancing at his lips, and following him as he takes a drink of beer, and David takes a deep breath, sets down his glass, and leans in toward Patrick.

He’s half a centimeter away when Patrick suddenly pulls back, his hand over his mouth. A block of ice settles firmly in David’s chest, squeezing.

“Oh, god, I—I’m _so_ sorry, if you weren’t—no—can we just—” A babble of apologizes spring from his mouth, and he thinks that this is it, he’s fucked up the only friendship besides Stevie and Alexis he’s ever had and fucked up a date to boot, and a partnership as he’s going to lose Patrick’s help at the store—

“No!” Patrick bursts out, and David finally stops and notice Patrick’s posture, how he’s leaning back with his eyes closed, taking deep breaths and rubbing a pulse point on his wrist that David recognizes from pulse point massage sessions. “It’s not that I don’t want to do—that—I want to do that—I just got a little nauseated, that’s all.”

Past experiences mean David so wants to ask if Patrick’s nauseated by _him_ , but he shoves it down and hopes that because of context Patrick had meant the alcohol.

Patrick’s eyes pop open and he slowly sits back up. “I think I’m good now,” he says, and then another deep breath. “Do you, uh, do you want to…try…that again?”

He sounds hopeful and David bites his lip and nods. “I’d like that.”

Patrick nods back eagerly. “Yeah. Yeah, me too, I’d like that very much.”

David leans in again, faster this time just in case, and this time he’s able to achieve his goal. He kisses Patrick and his brain explodes, his entire body on fire and doused in ice all at once. Kissing Patrick isn’t like anyone else he’s ever kissed. It’s so much better that he wonders if this is what it’s always like if you had feelings for the person first.

It's over all too soon for David’s liking, and for Patrick’s too if the look on his face is any indicator. “Thank you,” Patrick says.

David can’t help but smile. “Thank you too?”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d have the courage after I brought you here for a date, but—”

“Excuse me, our date was the wine tasting,” David points out.

Patrick stares at him. “That was a date?”

David stares back. “ _This_ was a date?”

“We just kissed!”

“After our date at the wine tasting!”

“What did you think this was, then?”

“The after-date! Where we kiss!”

Patrick’s voice is high and melodic with laughter now. “I’m sorry, the _after-date?_ ”

“Yes, it’s the part after the date where you go somewhere else and you kiss!”

“Well, why aren’t we kissing right now?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

Patrick swoops in towards David and makes this officially the best after-date David’s ever been on.

* * *

“Hey David,” Patrick says softly, and gives him a quick but lingering kiss. “I think we have an exclusivity deal.”

The corner of David’s mouth twitches up, and he nods twice with large swoops of his head. “I think we do.”

“Yeah, no need to meet any other guys,” Patrick continues, still teasing, and then he changes to an expression like David is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen in his life. “I meant it. There’s no one else I’d rather have selling my beer.”

The same corner goes up further. “Ah, so now I see what you were up to. Using me to sell beer,” David says, and he’s surprised at how easily the words come out without him having any thoughts that Patrick might be doing that for real, despite several similar situations in the past. He kisses him to keep from thinking too much about that.

Patrick nods seriously when they pull apart. “You figured me out. All I ever wanted was a beer seller and a boyfriend. Just my good luck that they’re the same person.”

 _Boyfriend_. It’s only been a few minutes, and David’s heart still jumps. He clears his throat to avoid the happy tears he can feel coming on. “Um, I guess you are very lucky to have me,” he jokes, because performative narcissism to counteract the anxiety saying the same to Patrick would bring is all he knows how to do here.

Patrick grins. “Yeah, maybe I should just change the brand name to Lucky Brewery.”

“Oh, you should, it would make _so_ much more sense than Running House,” David says, throwing his head back in relief.

Patrick laughs. “It’s Home Run, David, and I think you know that.”

“Yeah, exactly, that makes no sense? It’s like, that’s not even how grammar works. You don’t say _home run_ , it’s _run home_.”

“It’s baseball.”

“Mmm, okay, I don’t see what baseball has to do with what we’re talking about? But if you’re looking for suggestions, we _do_ sell the beer at our store and it’s all under the store brand, so Rose Brewery is still on the table.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Patrick breathes, staring at David’s lips, and he leans in.

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr @gaysteviebudd or @lesbiyangxiaolong!


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